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Want to learn more about our academic degree programs? Take a look at our Master of Divinity, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Ministry programs. Plus, learn about our unique Training & Mentoring program.

This Student Life section is the one-stop shop for students to get connected to activities that will feed your spiritual and social life as well as equip you with resources to jump-start your academic career.

Being a part of our Denver Seminary community is about connection. Whether you are an alumni, donor, or friend of the Seminary, we want to stay in touch and hope you'll take part in our programs and events.

Denver Seminary has a wealth of resources that are available to current students, alumni, and the local community. Here you will find access to the Denver Journal, Engage Magazine, and the various initiatives organized by the Seminary.

Auld's
acceptance of the challenge to write the International Critical
Commentary on Joshua led him to publish a collection of his earlier
studies on that book. This is indeed a welcome volume for those who
wish to examine the careful arguments and always innovative positions
that Auld takes. He considers issues of textual criticism, philology,
greater relations with the other "historical" books of the Old
Testament, and, in a completely new essay at the end (along with one
previously published), he reviews recent study on Joshua.

Overall,
Auld makes clear his view that the Septuagint text of Joshua is to be
preferred to the Masoretic Hebrew. This conclusion is arrived at
repeatedly in his articles on textual criticism, which tend to focus on
the town lists of Joshua 13-21. Further, as his work on Kings and
Chronicles suggests, Auld takes the view that often the text of
Chronicles should be preferred to that of Joshua regarding its
antiquity. This leads him to argue for the priority of text critical
work over history geography in these texts. Indeed, he has a point as
text critical studies must logically predetermine any textual source
that is to be used for historical purposes. However, the ambiguous
nature of the argumentation, while recognized by Auld, yields for him
firmer conclusions about the lack of reliability of Joshua's Masoretic
Hebrew text than many scholars would wish to assume.

These
presuppositions are carried into the philological discussions. Thus,
for example, Beth Anath is not the correct name of the place in Josh.
15:59. Instead, the Septuagint's alternative reading should be
followed. This would eliminate the occurrence of the deity Anath here
and would do away with theories about a sanctuary to Anath in the text.
In another article Auld observes that the verbal root in the command to
"subdue" the earth in Genesis 1:26-28 is similar to its usage in Joshua
and elsewhere. It carries the idea of universal rule.

Auld
stresses ambiguity in determining which of the parallel passages in
Joshua and Judges should be dated earliest. Elsewhere, he prefers
Chronicles as an earlier source than Joshua. Thus there emerges a
significant consistency in Auld's major theses, despite the many years
separating the essays in this collection.

The final two
chapters review recent studies on the book of Joshua. As a result the
reader is given the opportunity to see the importance of the text
critical issues for this book. Indeed, there is little doubt that the
relation of Masoretic Hebrew and the Septuagint Greek of Joshua is one
of the most significant problems in Old Testament textual criticism.
They are different and how that difference is to be explained has not
been satisfactorily answered. The Dead Sea Scroll fragments further
complicate the situation, with a third set of variant readings and
different positioning of some key cultic texts in the book.

It
is the contribution of Auld to identify some of the major textual and
interpretative problems in this volume. Although his well argued and
innovative suggestions regarding solutions will not always carry the
conviction of the majority of scholars, they do highlight the
unfinished business that remains for future commentators (Auld being
one of them) to address.